MWC 2013: Hands on with Nokia Lumia 520

The Lumia 520 is a stylish phone that beefs up the entry-level part of Nokia’s smartphone lineup. It’s colorful, small and inexpensive. Three selling points that’ll appeal to the new smartphone buyer.

Like all Lumia smartphones, the Lumia 520 has the typical boxy and colorful styling of Nokia’s Lumia phones. It’s more rounded than other Lumias and has an edge that curves up around the display. This will protect the screen in a fall, but it does give the phone a different feel, especially when you swipe edge-to-edge and hit the casing.

The handset has a 4.0”, 800×480, display with Nokia’s Super Sensitive Touch that lets you use your phone with gloves. Internally, the Lumia 520 is similar ro the 720 and is powered by a dual-core 1.0 GHz processor and 512MB of RAM. On paper, the specs look weak compared to powerhouses like the LG Optimus G Pro but it’s decent for a phone that’ll cost €139 ($185).

On the back of the phone is a 5-megapixel shooter with LED flash, and HD 720p recording @ at 30 fps. The front is 90 percent display with on-screen buttons. Keeping with Nokia’s traditional Lumia design, the sides house the volume rocker, the power button and a dedicated camera button. A headphone jack graces the top of the device and a charging port is on the bottom.

Software-wise, the Lumia 720 is powered by Windows Phone 8 and has all the bells and whistles of Microsoft’s latest mobile OS. The phone has a nice mix of Nokia-specific software features like Nokia Here Maps and Nokia Music that will appeal to new smartphone owners.

The Lumia 720 will land March 2013 for €139. It’ll hit Hong Kong and Vietnam first, and then slowly makes its away around the world. T-Mobile and China Mobile will also carry variants of the device. To get a closer look at Nokia’s latest entry-level smartphone, check out our hands-on photos below.